After having top leadership in flux for much of last year, the Kansas Department of Labor now has a permanent secretary ready to take over the agency.
Amber Shultz began her professional career as a research assistant in the Kansas Geological Survey, working with data and asset management, systems administration and technical innovation. She comes to the Labor Department after working as the general manager of Municipal Services and Operations for the city of Lawrence.
Shultz takes over a department that has been battling a range of issues in dealing with unprecedented demand for services as part of the coronavirus pandemic. Governor Laura Kelly says the agency has finally cleared its backlog of regular unemployment claims, which hit around 25,000 at the pandemic’s peak in June, and she says the department has now paid out almost four million weekly claims totaling over $2.6 billion in unemployment benefits. However, infrastructure problems persist with less-than-adequate staff to answer questions and 40-year-old technology driving its website. Fraudulent claims have been rampant since fall 2020 and Delia Garcia, the department secretary when last year started, lost her job in June after the department “clawed back” benefit funds from around 4,500 residents to recover from a series of duplicate payments.
Shultz will serve in an acting role until confirmed by the Kansas Senate. Ryan Wright and Brett Flachsbarth served as acting secretaries between Garcia and Shultz.
